Effingham changes high school schedules

Seven-period day meant to save money

Ronnie Benton spoke to members of Effingham County's Board of Education Wednesday. His 14-year-old niece recently shot and killed herself. He urged board members to take students' suicide threats seriously.

Effingham County’s Board of Education voted unanimously Wednesday afternoon to change from block scheduling at the high schools to seven-period days.

The move is meant to save money, as the district faces a potential $5 million deficit for fiscal year 2013.

The change will save the district a total of 14 to 20 high school teachers, with a salary savings of $980,000 to $1.4 million.

Superintendent Randy Shearouse said other staffing changes also are in store. He said 30 positions will be targeted system-wide, not just high school teachers.

Furlough days and a tax increase also are possible, he said.

Board members said the decision to change the schedule was not an easy one and that parents’ and teachers’ concerns were taken seriously.

“It’ll be hard to go to taxpayers and say we need to raise $5 million without doing everything we could (to save money) first,” said board member Mose Mock.

Board members have said they hope a tax increase will not be necessary. They won’t know more about it until next spring.

The board also decided Wednesday to adopt a school calendar next year with “enhanced breaks,” giving students a week-long fall break in October, a week off at Thanksgiving, two weeks off at Christmas and New Year’s and a week-long spring break in late March.

Teachers favored the calendar with the longer breaks, as did people who voted online.

Meanwhile, board members also agreed to accept the deed for Lisnacullen Farms, a 128-acre parcel in the southern part of the county, donated by Barry and Chris Sheehy.

The land deal has been in the works for three years. Among the possible uses for the property will be agriculture classes, ROTC and cross-country running.

School board chairman Lamar Allen said much of the property is wetlands. He estimated its value at $2,500 per acre, for a total of about $320,000.

“I don’t know of very many gifts like this that actually take place throughout the state,” Shearouse said.

He said originally, there was talk about donating the land to the University of Georgia. The local school system is very fortunate to be getting the property, he said.

Sheehy is one of the authors of a series of books on the Civil War in Savannah. The second book in the four-book series is scheduled to be available for purchase soon.

Board members also were presented with a “scorecard” for the school system, listing a number of measurements of success, including graduation rates.

The scorecard, which is posted on the school system’s Web site, indicates the county had a four-year graduation rate last year of 86 percent, better than the target of 82 percent.

The graduation rate for black students last year was 81 percent, better than the target of 74 percent.

Also at the meeting Wednesday, a man whose 14-year-old niece shot and killed herself recently made a heartfelt plea to the board members to take students’ threats about suicide seriously.

Ronnie Benton said his family has been contacted by parents whose children are bullied, saying they don’t know what to do about it or where to go.

He said Facebook and smart phones have created an environment where childrens’ mistakes are broadcast quickly throughout the schools.

Benton said a student went to a principal this week and said one of her classmates was saying she was tired of living. The student said she felt as if the principal “basically brushed (her) off.”

“To me, that’s unacceptable,” he said.

Shearouse said counselors were immediately involved in that case, meeting with the students.

Benton said he’s not accusing anyone of anything and he doesn’t blame anyone in the school system for his niece’s death.

He said his niece got picked on a lot. She said she hated school and that people were mean to her.

“She felt like she had nowhere else to go,” he said. “She felt like she was without family, without hope, without friends, without God. You’ve got to feel totally alone to do something like that.”

He said the family has questioned how they missed the signs that she was suicidal.

He urged members of the board of education to pay attention when a child cries for help.

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What a line of bull. Their minds were made up way before this meeting and before the November meeting where ( as reported in this paper) the majority of the people that spoke were against the change. The board rubber stamped Dictator Shearouse desired and all of them approved the his recommendation with no comments.The reduction in staff could have been accomplished with the current block schedule, but that didn't support the dictators desire to save the school that he allowed to fail. Rather than change the schedule why don't we change the upper management. That will never happen as long as the "good old boys" remain on the board.